Do not act maliciously or be hypocrites. God is joining you together into a holy group in which his Spirit lives, to do things that are pleasing to him.

1Therefore, do not act maliciously in any way or deceive others. Do not ◄be a hypocrite/try to make others think that you have qualities that you do not really have►, and do not ◄envy/be jealous of► others. Do not ever slander anyone.

2Just like newborn babies long for their mothers’ pure milk [MET], you should long for God’s spiritual truth, so that by learning it you may become spiritually mature. You need to do this until the day when God will free you completely from all the evil in this world.

3Also, you need to do this because you have experienced that the Lord acts in a good way toward you.

4You have come to the Lord Jesus. He is like an important stone [MET] put in the foundation of a building, but he is alive, not lifeless like a stone. He was rejected by many people {Many people rejected him}, but God chose him and considers him to be very precious.

5And like men build houses with stones [MET], God is causing you to be joined together into a group in which God’s Spirit lives, in order that you, because of what Jesus Christ did for us, might, like priests who offer sacrifices, do things that are pleasing to God.

6What Isaiah wrote in the Scriptures shows us that this is true. He wrote these words that God said: Note this well: I am placing in Jerusalem [MTY] one who is like [MET] an extremely valuable [DOU] ◄stone/cornerstone, the most important stone in the structure of a building►, and those who believe in him will never be disappointed.

7Therefore, God will honor you who believe in Jesus. But those who refuse to believe in him are like the builders that this Scripture talks about: The stone that the builders rejected has become ◄the cornerstone/the most important stone in the foundation of the building►.

8And it is also written {Isaiah wrote} in the Scriptures: He will be like a stone that causes people to stumble,
like a rock that people trip over. Just as people are injured when they stumble over a rock, people who disobey the message about Jesus are injured spiritually,
and that is what God determined would happen to them.

9But you are people whom God has chosen to belong to him. You are a group that represents God like priests do, and you rule with God [MET] like kings. You are ◄a holy group of people/a group of people who are separate from evil►. You are people who belong to God. This is in order that you might proclaim the virtues of God. He has called you from your former ways, when you were ignorant of his truth, into the marvelous understanding that he gives us [MET]. That is, he has called you out of spiritual darkness into spiritual light.

10What the prophet Hosea wrote is true of you Formerly, you were not a people who had a relationship with God,
But now you are God’s people.
At one time God had not acted mercifully toward you,
But now he has acted mercifully toward you.

Avoid obeying your self-directed natures. Conduct your lives in a good way among unbelievers.

11You people whom I love, I urge you to consider that you are like foreigners [MET, DOU] whose real home is in heaven. As a result, avoid doing the things that your self-directed nature desires, because those desires ◄fight against/always oppose► your souls.

12Keep conducting your lives in a good way among those who do not know God. If you do that, although they may accuse you, saying that you are people who do evil things, they will see your good behavior, and at the time when God comes to judge people, they will ◄give honor to him/say that what he does is right►.

Submit yourselves to human authorities, and act as servants of God should.

13For the sake of the Lord Jesus, submit yourselves to every human authority. That includes submitting yourselves to the king, who is the most important authority,

14and to governors, who are sent by the king {whom the king sends} to punish those who do what is wrong and to commend/honor those who do what is right.

15What God wants is that by your doing only what is good you will cause foolish people who do not know God to be unable to say things ◄to condemn you/to show you why you should be punished►.

16Conduct your lives as though you were free from having to obey authorities, but do not think “Because I am free from having to obey authorities, I can do evil things.” Instead, act as servants of God should.

17Act respectfully toward everyone. Love all your fellow believers. Revere God, and honor the king.

You slaves must submit yourselves to your masters, even if they mistreat you. Imitate Christ in the way in which he suffered unjustly.

18You slaves who are believers, submit yourselves to your masters and completely respect them. Submit yourselves not only to those who act in a good and kind [DOU] way towards you, but also submit yourselves to those who act in a harsh way towards you.

19You should do that because God is pleased with those who, knowing that he is aware of what is happening to them, endure the pain that they suffer because of being treated unjustly by their masters {their masters have treated them unjustly}.

20God will certainly not [RHQ] be pleased with you if you do something that is wrong and as a result you are beaten {someone beats you}! But if, instead of doing something that is wrong, you do what is good, and as a result of that, you suffer for doing something that is good, and you endure that suffering, God will ◄commend/be pleased with► you.

21One of the reasons why God chose you is that you would suffer. When Christ suffered for you, he became an example for you, in order that you would ◄imitate what/do like► he did.

22Remember how Christ conducted himself: He never sinned,
And he never said [MTY] anything to deceive people.

23When people insulted him, he did not insult them in return.
When people caused him to suffer, he did not threaten ◄to get revenge/to cause them to suffer►.
Instead, he decided to let God, who always judges justly, prove that he ◄was innocent/had done nothing that is wrong► (OR, he left his case in the hands of God, who always judges justly).

24He himself endured physically the punishment for our sins when he died on the cross,
in order that we would stop sinning (OR, no longer respond to sinful desires) and start living righteous lives. It is because he was wounded {they wounded him} that your souls have been saved [MET] from being sinful, as people’s bodies are healed from being sick.

25Truly you were like sheep that had gone astray [SIM], but now you have returned to Jesus, who cares for your souls as a shepherd cares for his sheep [MET].